A SCSI, SAS, or Fibre Channel disk drive has Log Pages, which contain information that has been collected as the drive has run and been used. There are a number of Log Pages with different information stored in them, such as Read Errors, Write Errors, and others.

By right-clicking on your disk drive and choosing the View Log Pages choice you can look at all of the information that has been collected. The information is organized with the Log Page shown on the left side of the display and the more detailed Log Parameters for each Log Page shown on the right side. To show the detailed Parameters for a given Page simply double-click on the Log Page you are interested in.

Here you will see the year and week that the drive was manufactured. This can be good information to have available if for instance a drive manufacture were to warn of a problem with drives made in a certain date range.

Also shown are the Maximum Recommended Start-Stop Cycles and the Actual Start-Stop Cycles. The Maximum value is a number that the drive manufacturer recommends not be exceeded over the life of the drive. The Actual value is exactly that – the actual number of times the drive has been stopped and started. As an example I stopped the drive (right-click on the drive then pick Stop Drive or Start Drive), started the drive back up, and then looked at the Log Pages again – and sure enough the Actual value is now 20 –

With a manufacturers recommended 50,000 stop-starts I know that this drive should be good for another 49,980 or so stop-stop cycles!

Log Pages are full of mostly useful information. The best way to learn more about what information can be found in a given drive is to look at the drive manufacturers SCSI Command reference documentation.

A new feature in the upcoming STB Suite version 8.7 is an easy menu command to restore the full original capacity of a SCSI/SAS/FC disk drive which has been short-stroked. Here is a picture of the device display, showing two of the same model drives, one of which had been short-stroked down to 999MB –

To restore Target 270 to its original full capacity simply click on the drive to select it. Then go to the top menu Disk->Commands choice, the Capacity/Block Functions, and finally to the new Restore Full Capacity command –

The current capacity is shown –

click the Restore Full Capacity button – you should see a message that the full capacity has been restored

After 20 years of testing innovation and success the STB Suite version 8.6 (STB20/COM) is being offered for the same low price as it was 20 years ago.

Yes, that’s right $1,695.00 (reg. $4,995 – STB/COM) and you’ll receive all of the amazing modules that have made the Toolbox a staple for Enterprise Peripheral Testing for 20 years. (See all Release Notes)

For those that remember, we ran this offer in 2002! Of course since then we’ve had hundreds of product enhancements, new modules, and more. Don’t wait another 10 years to snatch up the Toolbox at this truly incredible price!

But wait, you say, I have an older STB Suite is there anything you can do for me? Not to worry! Also, until the end of the year you can purchase two Years of Performa (upgrades/support) for $1695 no matter how old your Hardware Key license is! Amazing, we thought so too.

To make sure you are running the latest version of the STB Suite and are notified ASAP on the new releases be sure to follow the outline below.

Be sure to keep your Technical Contact information updated with STB so you receive the latest emails regarding new releases.

Email – This is very important and we would recommend using a technical support distribution email address so it is visible by more than one person to avoid accidental deletions, junk mail filtering, or just missing the “Official Performa notifications”.

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Company

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Have your testing teams or technical co-workers sign-up for the STB Suite Monthly newsletter so they can see what’s coming, what’s new and not miss out on any special promotions or announcements for the STB Suite. Please note if you sign-up for the newsletter you will receive a follow-up email that requires a confirmation. If you don’t receive that email then your company mail server is blocking @scsitoolbox.com and/or @stbsuite.com.

If you’re not sure who your technical contact is for your license(s) or have any questions contact STB today!